To The End of the Line
by tigerfeet
Summary: Alexandra Lockheart is just your average girl trying to live an average life. Or so she would have everyone believe. The truth about her past and her victimization at the hands of Weapon X and being an enhanced human all comes screaming into light when Nick Fury attempts to recruit her after having suspicious about SHIELD being compromised. She reluctantly is thrown back into a lif
1. Prologue: Futures I

_(A/N: Sooooo, I've been on a huge MCU tear recently, and because of this...I've obviously remembered how devastatingly in love with Bucky Barnes I am and I kiiiiinnnnndddd of have a plot bunny. There will be elements of cross overs from other Marvel plots (obviously, Weapon X) and I'm basically plopping my ofc right in the middle of the movies so there will be dialogue and parts of the movies included. Also plenty of flash-forwards (duh, I'm starting with one) and flashbacks so if you don't like any of these things, please click out now. _

_Comments or reviews are greatly appreciated!)_

**Prologue: Futures I**

Lexie had been asleep when it started, or something like it in some sense of the word anyway.

Out of sight and out of mind behind an easily missed door, taking refuge from what had been a blinding headache. Blissfully hidden away from the rest of the world in a smaller than average bedroom in the smaller than average Bucharest apartment; resting on a smaller than average bed that really could have been more comfortable. Not that she would ever, or could ever, complain. She'd had much worse in her day, after all. The kind of worse she didn't like to think about, to speak about, to remember and as such, although it really wasn't much, the tiny bedroom in the even tinier apartment and all it had to offer in the way of comfort may as well have been a five star hotel by comparison. Home was what one made of it anyway, and as "they" always said, home is where the heart is and Lexie's heart quite solidly resided right where she was. She was happy, for the first time in a long time…mostly due to the company above all else, but she as happy. _They_ were happy. And that was all that mattered.

Somewhere between the grip of consciousness and the first stirrings of slumber and the sweet dreamland to follow, she was downright oblivious.

Oblivious to the fact that Bucky had left to ferret out something to make her feel better.

Oblivious to the fact that an old friend had been skulking around her home mere feet from her own bedroom door.

Oblivious to everything that had happened or was about to happen.

She was sleeping when it started, or something like it. Fully convinced the hushed conversation from the other room was some kind of sleepy hallucination or very much the makings of a dream. After all, it couldn't possibly have been real…or s she thought; at least until she picked up on the hurriedness, the unease and the tone of the discourse that didn't seem quite right.

"I know you're nervous. And you have plenty of reason to be."

That voice she knew all too well.

That voice that she thought with every fiber of her being that she couldn't possibly be hearing.

"But you're lying."

She sat half bolt upright in bed as they continued, striking blend of confusion and concern washing over her in waves as she stilled herself as much as possible to hear what was going on just past the bedroom walls.

"I wasn't in Vienna, I don't do that anymore."

The edge in Bucky's voice pulled Lexie from the bed and with a couple of swift strides she was at the door instead; cracking it open slightly, quietly as she could without giving hint to her impromptu hiding place.

"Well, the people that think you did are coming here now…and they're not planning on taking you alive."

"That's smart, good strategy."

Through the crack in the door, her window of witness Lexie caught ger first glimpse of him. The low light that filtered through the window caught his shield and glinted off it, red white and blue and there was no mistake. An inch or two more, silently, slowly and she had eyes on the full deal and he was every bit the sight she remembered in all his glory. Right there in her kitchen, clear as day, Captain fucking America, Steve Rogers himself. A sight for sore eyes and pretty much the last person she would have ever expected to see any time soon and she was quite sure the feeling was reciprocal.

Bucky was tense and still and it really came as no surprise. Three years he had been on the lamb. Three years since he had fled and had to hide himself away. Three years since he had been free of HYDRA and three years since Steve had stirred his memories, lifted the fog that had oppressed his mind of so long and thrown him into a hurricane of confusion. Three years since he had been outed as a ruthless, heartless assassin. Three years since he had spent more nights than not being haunted by everything he had done. Three years worth of nightmares that no matter how hard he tried he could not shake. Three years since he had distanced himself from it all, killed the man he once was. Three years cine he had tried and three years he had succeeded in making something of a new life for himself.

…and now, three years later, Steve had come to find him and everything had come crashing down.

The jig was up.

"This doesn't have to end in a fight, Buck."

Lexie's heart thumped in her chest, pounding a furious drum beat behind her ribcage as a barrage of footsteps thumped out across the roof above them and the adrenaline kicked in.

"It always ends in a fight." Bucky retorted with a baneful sigh; eyes downcast as he tugged at the sleek black glove that hid the polished metal of his hand away from prying eyes.

Lexie looked on for just a moment longer, steadying herself for her grand reveal and the way she was about to throw herself headlong into the mix. Whether it was a good idea to do so or not, one thing she knew for certain was that she wasn't about to leave Bucky to handle things own. She wasn't about to sit idly by from the shadows and watch; not a chance. One more deep breath to steel her will ad she pushed the door open to join them, catching both men off guard.

"Bucky…what's going on?"

"Lexie?"

Steve's jaw damn near hit the floor at the sight of her…there… with him. It was like a sucker punch straight to the gut. It knocked the wind out of him and it was all he could do to not react at the sight of her behind him clad in nothing more than a flimsy pair of track shorts and an oversized t-shirt that undoubted belonged to him. It was a sucker punch to the gut to know that she had been alive all this time without so much as a word. As far as Steve was concerned, up until that exact moment, Lexie was dead as he had thought Bucky was and having a ghost brought back to life for the second time in less than 24 hours was throwing him for a loop.

"Hey, Steve." She muttered a sheepish greeting and flashed an even more sheepish smile.

"…Hey." He nodded a replay, momentary glint of regret sparking in his eyes.

"Your bail out bag…go grab it…quickly." Bucky shot a stern order over his shoulder. "We've gotta go."

"I don't understand…"

"Lex, just do as I say, now!" He barked back as tensions rose to a fever pitch. "We're leaving."

Steve forced himself to give his head a shake and get back in the game; break free of the 10,000 questions kicking up a flash storm in his mind. He was out of time. If he couldn't manage to talk Bucky down, there was little hope of getting either of them out of dodge in one piece. He needed to refocus himself, and everyone else for that matter, and quickly at that.

"You're not leaving like this, Bucky.: He countered firmly, cursing to himself at Sam's count down in his ear; there wasn't much time before the German forces would set on them and all hell would break loose.

"Watch me." Bucky brushed Steve off and locked eyes with Lexie imploringly. "Lex…please."

"I'm not letting you walk outta here and straight into that. No way, no how."

"Yeah well, you don't really have a choice."

"You pulled me from that river. Why?"

"I don't know." Bucky lied, desperate to convince even just himself that it was all still a haze and that every memory and every misdeed wasn't crystal clear in his mind.

"_Yes_, you do."

"Steve…" Lexie again tried in vain to break into the conversation and figure out just what was going on only to be pre-empted from finishing her sentence.

Steve's name fell from her lips and no sooner than it had, did the shit hit the fan full force. Lexie jumped out of her skin as two flash grenades rocketed through the window; one of which Steve managed to knock back out and the other Bucky kicked towards him to block the blast with his shield.

Eyes wide, she fought through the solid ringing in her head. "The _fuck_ is going on!? Seriously!"

"No time." Bucky gruffed and grabbed her around the arm; pulling her to his side and shielding her from the third with the spare mattress that housed him in the middle of the night when his nightmares claimed him. "Stay down. I'll handle it."

Another order as he pulled it in front of her to keep her at least a little bit out of the shitstorm. Lexie could fight for herself, of course, there was no questioning that. She was horribly out of practice but she would have been able to hold her own just as well as he could, but Bucky didn't care. Saying he was protective wasn't a strong enough word for the way he wasn't in the habit of putting her in harm's way if he could help it. It had been that way since she had been by his side, and he wasn't about to change the fact and start by making her an open target for God only knew how many bullets were going to be potentially ricocheting around the room.

A team at the front of the apartment sent to sneak attack tried and failed to break down the door, thwarted by the solid table Bucky flung against it to serve as a barricade for as long as it would hold. Her eyeline obscured once again, Lexie heard to SWAT members crash through the kitchen windows and much to her dismay, all she could do was sit tight and listen to the first sounds of the fight on bated breath and a stomach full of nerves.

Gunfire and body hits.

Flesh against glass and bullets against metal.

All familiar sounds, but something quite different to hear for her when in the heat of the moment but not at all in the thick of the fight.

"Buck, stop! You're gonna kill someone." A brief lull in the fight and Steve went back to negotiate his best friend out of an increasingly sticky situation.

"I'm not gonna kill anybody." Bucky upended him and slammed him to the floor and smashed a metal fished through the floorboards to yank a small pack of supplies free. It wasn't much, but it would have to do. "Lex…let's go!"

Instantaneously, and not surprisingly, the second wave attack hit just as he had called her out and just as she had started to creep out from behind the mattress. More bullets and more blows and for a glorious few moments Steve and Bucky worked side by side without a stutter step; just as they had so many years ago to save their own skins as well as each other's.

Lexie would be lying if she said it wasn't a sight to behold. The last time she had seen the pair in combat together they were out for each other's blood, at least Bucky had been. To see them as they were now was something else to behold entirely.

Swiftly blocking a solid round of gunfire with his augmented hand, Bucky hurtled a heavy cinder block across the room and into the last remaining opponent square in the stomach; there would be time now before another group would come charging in, that much he was sure of, and in an instant he made his way over to Lexie to get her by his side; to _keep_ her by his side and to keep her safe.

All of this was his fault.

"Bucky, there's more I can hear them."

"I know, Doll." He fixed his eyes on hers again and brought his hand to cup her cheek to both to hold her attention on him and to reassure her that everything was going to be fine in one smooth gesture. "We're gonna have to fight our way out."

"Goddamn it." Lexie shook her head to herself and felt a twinge of anxiety flash through her system.

"It's okay…you can do this. You stay behind me…I'm not gonna let anything happen to you, I promise. It's me they want anyway."

"Fuck…so much for retirement." She pressed her cheek into his palm a little more firmly and gave him a quick confident nod; even though she was anything but really, she couldn't let him know. He had always been so strong for her, it was her turn to pay the favor back. "Alright, let's just get it done."

Bucky cracked a half smile and smoothed his fingers through her hair. "That's my girl." He rested his forehead against hers and kissed her once softly in case the worst case happened and it was the last chance he got for a while. "I love you."

She licked the taste of him off her lips and let the moment linger for the split second they had. "Love you more."

Lexie swallowed the growing lump in her throat.

This was the start of something much larger. She didn't know what yet, but she could feel it in her bones. She had lived too much, seen too much, done too much over the course of her life to ever really be wrong about these things. So many years in the life meant she had a well-honed gut instinct, and this time it was something she just couldn't shake.

It sank her guts to her toes.

This time she had so much more to lose and what she was about to get dragged back into felt as real and as heavy as the shotgun blasts that rang out now against the door.

Three years since it had all started.

Three years since she had first met Steve, and then Bucky and her life had been so irrevocably changed.

There was nothing she could have done to stop the freight train then…and there was nothing she could do to stop it now.


	2. Chapter One: First Impressions: Part One

_(A/N: __Sooooo this took longer than expected to get up. But every which way I wote it, it was loooooong. So long in fact I split it up into two because it was close to 5,000 words and I think a little shorter is a little more readable. The second part will be posted tomorrow some point, when I have a chance to proof read. Just a note to say the first three or four chapters are a bit slower, for character building etc. But stick with it and we'll get there, just a reminder this is a long haul lolol don't give up._

_Also, just a reminder, for my own purposes, the timeline will be altered as I need it, so if you're picky about timeline bear with me :P Enjoy! I hope_

* * *

**Chapter One: First Impressions: Part I**

There was something about the view from very tall buildings that Lexie Lockheart found captivating and she could never really put her finger on quite what it was. Maybe it was because from such a great height the world around her was so tiny, so distant, so insignificant that she could disconnect; she could step outside herself and not think for a change, just sit back and observe life as it went on around her. Maybe it was the absolute opposite and it was because it gave her the distance _to_ think without being distracted and pulled in seventeen different directions by everyone else's ongoing life struggles, self-involved conversation, and perpetual drama. Maybe it was just the quiet that she valued so much that kept her so enthralled. The kind of quiet that dulled the senses and made it hard to feel anything other than at ease.

It could have been a hundred different things that any well-schooled therapist could narrow down and diagnose some deep-rooted issue within her to milk the life out of for months worth of couch sessions. Whatever it was, there was no denying that every view from every ridiculously tall building gave Lexie peace and kept her transfixed, hypnotized, held hostage even…and the current spectacle before her was no different.

Stood pensively in front of floor to ceiling windows in a ridiculously large office inside S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters, surveying the bustle of the grounds and the city below, for the hundredth time since she arrived Lexie contemplated the fact that she had no idea why she was there; moreover, she had no idea why she had even come. Of course, she knew full well had she not accepted the so gracious invitation extended to her she would have been brought in under the guise of some sort of nonsense all the same. After all, invitations from large and covert intelligence agencies were rarely invitations; not in the purest definition anyways. This was not an invitation, it was not a request, it was not a simple plea for her willingness to provide audience.

No.

This was a straight thinly veiled, very cordial demand for her presence and there was nothing more she could do other than comply if she didn't want to drive her foot straight into the hornet's nest and stir up a world of trouble. Of course, there was the very real possibility that would happen anyway, and that fact made Lexie more anxious than anything.

There was nothing more she could do for now, as much as she didn't want to, but comply. Play the game. Do everything she could to not rock the boat and at least try and find out what the cause of it all was. Find out why exactly a lowly bartender who mostly worked the boring-ass day shift in a less than thriving run-down dive had the pleasure of being visited twice by some low-level S.H.I.E.L.D lackey; once right smack dab in the middle of her workday (oh how people were probably talking) and the second time laying in wait for her outside of her apartment complex. Twice in just a little over to weeks, she had been extended the invitation for a meeting and rather predictably so, the messenger wasn't authorized to disclose the matter at hand or even hint at the reason Director Nick Fury was to have just a few moments of her time.

Of course not…that would have been too easy.

One visit could have been an accident, a case of mistaken identity or at worst perhaps Lexie had seen something she hadn't realized was something of importance to some super important matter or interacted with a person of interest without knowing it. After all, she did work at a scuzzy ass bar where the patrons were not exactly the most outstanding class of citizen; it would come without any surprise at all to learn that one of them (if not more) was involved in something to garner such attention.

Two visits, however, two visits with growing insistence could not be so easily brushed off. Two visits had no reason for being a thing at all unless something of note pertaining to her explicitly was up.

Two visits in just a little over two weeks and Lexie wasn't sure she wanted to chance a third.

This had to die. This had to be something she could put behind her now too, just as she had already put so many things behind her or had tried to anyway.

Maybe if she tried hard enough, Lexie could continue to fool herself into believing that she had no idea why she was there. But maybe, just maybe, she knew exactly why it was she had been summoned…and it twisted a knot in her stomach.

"It's really , isn't it?" Without warning, and really more silently than she had expected, Fury was at Lexie's side to admire the view along with her and rip her out of her introspection.

She hadn't really known what she was expecting, but he looked like he had just stepped out of some action movie; the way he was clad completely in black topped off with a badass old school eye patch. She couldn't decide if it was a good omen or a bad omen, by design or completely on purpose but whatever the case may be, it was all together a little intimidating and almost foreboding really.

"It is." Lexie agreed, taking a sidelong glance before turning her gaze towards the windows again. "I'm a little jealous actually. It's very peaceful up here."

"Isn't it? One of the best views in the city, I think." He continued. "Perks of the job. One of the only things peaceful about my day. It makes all the long hours and all the responsibility I get thrown at me, whether I like it or not, worth it…I think."

She half chuckled and cracked a small smile. "Well, I can't say I can relate…I've never had an office job."

"No, I guess you wouldn't be a corporate sorta girl."

"Sorry?" Lexie arched a brow, taking exception to such a peculiar thing to say upon first meeting.

"Nothing." Fury pulled his best attempt at a good-natured smile and a reassuring chuckle of his own as he waved off his comment, pointed as he knew it was. "Don't mind me, you just don't read as the type…I shouldn't make assumptions."

"You wouldn't be the first."

A momentary silence, a rather stiff air hung between them as each tried to garner a better impression of other. Heavy, imposing, the kind of tension you could cut with a knife if it had lasted any longer than it did. Once again, Lexie couldn't tell if it was by design that he had swayed the conversation to a quick flash, knee jerk statement to purposely put her nerves on end or if it was completely accidental, but it certainly felt like some sort of game to size her up and gauge her reaction.

"Where are my manners? I'm sure you didn't agree to come all the way out here just for a bit of small talk."

"Not exactly."

"I didn't think so…sit…please." He trailed back around her and took his own seat at an oversized desk with a sleek chair in the middle of the room. "I'm sorry I couldn't come to you…it's a very interesting time around here…lots of irons in lots of fires…I'm spread a bit thin."

Lexie followed suit and dropped solidly into the chair opposite his "It's fine…time's…the one thing I have more than enough of."

Another somewhat cheeky smirk passed Fury's face as he continued. "All the same, you probably wanna get to the point. I'm sure you have a lot of questions."

"Maybe one or two." She lied, still doing her best to paint on a perfect poker face.

"And maybe one or two after that."

"…Could be."

"Well…" He leaned back in his chair and folded his hands in front of himself. "All in good time. But first, tell me…what do you know about S.H.I.E.L.D?"

Lexie was forced a pause.

She hadn't at all expected that question and she had to tread lightly. Saying nothing at all would play out suspiciously like she was skirting around something and like she had something to hide and that would only invite more questions that probed even deeper. At the same time, saying too much meant she knew far more than she was supposed to and would undoubtedly have the same end effect in a likely much more intensive and invasive fashion.

It was a fine balance and a difficult area to decipher just what exactly what sort of middle ground would get her by.

Unless living under a rock, everyone knew about S.H.I.E.L.D; that much was undeniable. Everyone knew about S.H.I.E.L.D and everyone knew about the so aptly titled enhanced humans the organization had such a penchant for working with. Everyone knew _something _about what it was all about and what was going on. Generalized information for a general public. Night and day between actual knowledge and the measly scraps thrown to the masses to placate them; to scratch the surface and let them in on just enough. What the general public didn't know, couldn't hurt them after all. What the general public didn't know kept them calm and collected and maybe even complacent.

Ignorance was bliss after all.

What the general public didn't know couldn't hurt them. What the general public didn't know would keep them up at night and incite a good old fashioned bout of mass hysteria. There were too many like covert organizations, too many people, too many threats both on home soil and on an intergalactic level as well just to up the ante even more. So many people with so many agendas and so much power. The fate of everything and everyone was in a constant flux of being managed and maintained and resting on the edge of a blade; one false move would result in utter disaster from which there would be no form of return.

What the general public didn't know couldn't hurt them.

…but Lexie wasn't the general public…and she knew _far_ more than she was supposed to.

But right then and right there she had no choice but to play dumb and hope for the absolute best, while at the same time dreading the sinking reality of something much worse.

"About as much as anyone." She sighed. "You guys do cool shit and get the bad guys? I guess."

"Do cool shit and get the bad guys." Fury smirked again. "Straight…to the point. I like it."

"Well, it's the best I've got. If I'd known this was gonna be some kind of pop quiz, I would have studied…listen…" Lexie agreed and did her best to try and get the ball rolling; get to the crux of the conversation, get the show on the road so she could extricate herself from the situation as soon as possible. "Why am I here…exactly? Pardon my French, but I don't know what the fuck the deal is and I don't know why you're trying to talk me to death but if you don't mind…I don't _actually _ want to be here sooooooo…"

"You got some snap to you…I like that too."

"I know…my mother always warned me it would get me into trouble. She wasn't exactly wrong."

"Mothers will do that." Fury nodded, his demeanor shifting slightly as he zeroed in a little more intently. "Have a good relationship, you and your mother?"

Lexie froze as her heart sank to her toes.

She'd given Fury an in. Without even knowing it she'd opened the door just a crack and he had stomped his way right on in leaving her to feel quite like a fool on account. The way he had made her wait for what felt like an eternity, he pointless small talk, the pointed dialogue he so easily pretended to slough off and assuage her suspicions. If she was bored, if she was confused, if she was frustrated by the entire encounter, it would have been all the easier to push Lexie to drop her guard. Once she dropped her guard and only once she dropped her guard, would Fury be ready to dig full force into the heart of the matter. She'd played right into his palm and now she was in a strangle hold with little chance of prying herself free.

It was a brilliant move, really. She should have expected nothing less.

"Sure." She lied through her teeth, full well knowing she was probably beaten but not willing to give an inch until she absolutely was forced to.

"Good, good. That's good to hear…you speak often?"

"We're both _very_ busy…life…and such."

"I see." Another pregnant pause flooded the room, tension so thick it was flat out oppressive. "So, it's been a while?"

"You could say that…yeah."

"That's unfortunate." Fury leaned forward and pulled open drawer in the desk and slipped out a rather weighty looking manila folder. "Wouldn't have anything to do with this…would it?"

He tossed the folder to land squarely in front of her and there was little else Lexie could do but stare vacantly directly at it, mind racing a thousand miles a second with nothing she could do to stop it.

Her entire life, she presumed, classified, organized and stacked neatly within the confines of a bland beige casing. Everything she had hidden away and stuffed down to try and live some sort of life that was normal and respectable for a change. Everything she had hidden away, risen above and kept from everyone around her for so very long come storming to the forefront and laid at her feet so effortlessly, so matter of factly, so plainly demanding an address that she didn't want to give.

She was fucked.


	3. Chapter Two: First Impressions: Part Two

**Chapter Two: First Impressions Part: Two**

"Take a peek if you want. I don't think it'll bite you…do you?"

Lexie scoffed and rolled her eyes at Fury's somewhat condescending taunt. He couldn't have cared less if she actually looked at the file or not. He knew as well as she did there was nothing in there charted, recorded, made note of that she didn't know about herself; at least she hoped there wasn't. He didn't care if she looked inside the folder or not, but what he did care about was that she wouldn't. What was important to Fury now was that fact that the last thing Lexie wanted to actually do was confront every scrap of information compiled in front of her that she would much rather run from it. It was a power move, clearly. As long as she knew that he knew everything there was to know about her and had it so readily at his disposal to do whatever he saw fit, he had the high ground, the upper hand, held her in check…and Lexie hated it.

"I don't think you have a good relationship with your mother at all." Fury continued to chip away at her, to dig and get under her skin. "I don't think you'd piss on her if she were on fire and I don't blame you one bit."

She didn't respond. Straight backed and tight-lipped in her chair, she didn't have the first clue of what to do or say to even begin to handle the situation.

"How old were you? Refresh memory…you were what, thirteen? Fourteen…when she sent you away?"

"Fifteen." Lexie relented. Distinct look of distaste tainting her features.

"Fifteen…you look good for your age." Fury snarked, folding his hands in front of himself. "Fifteen…_ .old _when she sent you off…sold you off, I should say, to the Weapon Plus Program…Weapon X, specifically…right?"

"Yeah." She muttered with eyes fixed ahead of her, trying her best to at least dissociate a little so she could stem the flow of memories.

"Sold off…just like that. They tell her they could cure you? Take your gift away from you and make you normal?"

"Fuck if I know…she just wanted me gone. She didn't care to where or to what…she just wanted me gone and if she could make a little money at it, that was twice as good."

"Nasty stuff. I can't imagine how _awful_ that must have been."

"Awful isn't the word I'd use for what they did." Lexie lifted her eyes to meet Fury's. "_Awful _isn't a strong enough their _treatments_. Torturous works…as a starting point."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

"But I am…truly."

"Why am I here?" She asked for the second time, even more resolved to get the hell out of dodge as soon as she could; _if_ she could.

"Well, I guess that depends on you, to be truthful. See, I've been over everything in this folder at least five times and I find it _very_ interesting…I find you, _very_ interesting." He leaned in a little closer, cutting the distance to bring it all home and get to the point. "You really said it perfectly when I asked you what you knew about S.H.I.E.L.D you were right. We do do cool shit and we do get the bad guys. You've worked for some of them…haven't you?"

"In a different life."

"In a different life…so you don't consider yourself a bad guy? Not anymore?"

"I don't." Lexie assured him.

"I don't either…and that's why you're here."

"Sure."

"I mean it. Observation is part of what do here." Fury explained. "Constant vigilance. It helps us get to _know_ people before we get to know them. It helps _me_ get to know people. And certain people, like yourself, we've been getting to know for a very long time."

"I don't understand."

She was beginning to think that Nick Fury had just a bit of a taste for the dramatic; though he was probably the last person who would have ever admitted to having such a thing even when called out directly to his face.

"About a lifetime ago, I guess right before Weapon X was dismantled, S.H.I.E.L.D got a whole lotta information about a whole lotta the unwitting participants of the program. And in that whole lotta information about a whole lotta people, a handful stood out…got our attention…seemed like the type we should keep a close watch on."

"Guess that means me." Lexie smirked to herself, unable to deny the strangest streak of pride that coursed through her.

"It does." He smiled. "Three years they made you a lab rat and a lap dog…and then you got out and you lost your way. Almost 20 years in the life…and _then_ you just dropped out…went off the grid as deep as you could."

"Not deep enough, clearly."

"S.H.I.E.L.D has unlimited resources, Ms. Lockheart. I told you…you've had our interest for a _long_ time. We were always gonna find you…it was just a matter of when." He continued. "Enhanced strength, enhanced agility, enhanced reflexes, enhanced regeneration…a textbook super-soldier. You're not the first and not the last…but what you were born with…mimicry…" He paused momentarily, either for effect or because he was so desperately trying to get a read on her. "Now that's something you don't see every day. That's an asset to say the least."

Lexie shook her head and rolled her eyes once again as she leaned back in her chair, nerves vanishing in an instant. After the long and wordy bout of verbal gymnastics, the path Fury was headed down, the bait he was so blatantly chumming the water with was all too clear; and she wasn't biting.

"I'm not a perfect soldier, Mr. Fury. You can save your breath. I've heard it all before."

"So you think."

"So I _know._" She retorted gruffly. "I'm not a perfect soldier and in fact, I'm probably barely a soldier at all anymore. I haven't properly trained in almost a decade and I probably couldn't fight my way blindfolded out of a paper bag these days. Maybe I was…once upon a time…but perfect soldiers don't ask questions…I do. I don't just jump because someone tells me to fucking jump. I think for myself. I'm not an asset…I can't be bought…I don't want that anymore…I don't work like that anymore."

"Not even to do some good? To be on the right side and make some amends?" Fury countered, pulling at threads of guilt and whatever internal demons lingered not so very dormant within her. "You sleep okay at night?"

"I sleep just fine, thank you."

"You know, you double blink when you lie…you gotta work on that tell."

"Whatever."

"I'm not gonna blow smoke up your ass and pretend I know what it's like to have been through what you've been through or what it's like to do all the things that you've done…but I know a little bit of it and it's not pretty."

Lexie opened her mouth to reply only to be silenced with a raise of his hand.

"I know you figure if you just pretend like it never happened…like it was all just a bad dream you can forget about it…but it's been 10 years, and something tells me it hasn't worked too damn well."

"_Whatever_."

"I work with a very special group of very special people and I think you'd make an exceptional addition. That's why I brought you here to talk and I'm hoping maybe you'll just listen…let it sink in. I'm hoping that maybe you'll think about it for a little longer than five seconds before you cut off your nose to spite your face."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because things are happening…things are in play and wheels are turning that I don't know can be stopped." The tone of the conversation shifted a little more dire as did the expression wrought on Fury's face. "I don't know how long we'll stay on top of it…I don't know how long we'll have the upper hand. You and I both know there's much nastier people than the assholes that weaponized a fifteen-year-old girl, slapped a control collar on her and made her a slave. I know you probably don't think so, but I'm _telling _you there are…and if something happens, you might not like it any."

"Negative." Lexie shook her head dismissively; knee-jerking into unimpressed wit. "That's very glass half empty, Mr. Fury. Has no one ever taught you the power of positive thinking?"

"I'm a realist."

"Not much of one, considering you think a thinly veiled threat is going to change my mind."

"It's a warning, not a threat…and if worse comes to worst, maybe even a promise, I don't know yet. But what I do know is there's strength in numbers." Fury offered back matter of factly. "I'd think carefully if I were you. You're on your own…and no one lives long enough to say a lone wolf forever."

He wasn't wrong, she would have had to have been a fool to think otherwise. There was very much indeed strength in numbers, and she was very much indeed on her own; she had been for years. But until proven otherwise, anything Fury glossed over with speculative warnings were little else than fear-mongering to Lexie. And fear-mongering, no matter which side it was thrown at her from, fear-mongering was little more to her than just a cheap way to gain a pawn for a much larger game. And it was a game she had been out of for so long, she didn't know if she wanted to let alone need to throw herself back into full force. She didn't know if that was a path, whether for good or otherwise, she was willing to walk down.

…but all the same, he had a point.

"Think about it…" He bid her again. "Please."

She chewed her lower lip anxiously as she set her gaze downward in contemplation; picking at the sides of her nails as she fought a decidedly difficult battle in the confines of her mind.

"And if I do?"

"We'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it…but just so you know, anything you need, I can provide."

"It's not about that."

"I know…it's just an offer. I could use another ally and I can't chance to look on the inside."

"Fine." Lexie conceded with an exasperated sigh. Giving in was not her strong point and even though she knew that considering his offer wasn't technically doing so, it didn't mean that it felt any different. "But decide on my own terms…I see your people, I get some fucked up feeling, I get a hint of anything that makes me feel like you're putting my back against the wall and you know what my answer will be."

"On your terms…I can work with that."

"Good." She pushed herself up from her chair to take her leave with the conversation over as far as she was concerned, but one last bug nagged in the back of her mind.

Anything she wanted, anything she needed he could provide in exchange for her service. It wasn't an unfamiliar offer and coming from Fury it seemed like less of a bribe and more of a promise to make sure she was taken care of in some manner of the word. She was used to providing for herself, used to taking care of herself…but there had always been and would always be one such matter that she hadn't the pull to take care of and it was the most important to her.

"You want me to say yes…that file gets wiped. What you've got in front of you…what you know, stays with you." She point blank demanded. "I want a clean slate…or we're not gonna be allies very long."

"Now, _that_ I don't know if I can pull off."

"Well, I guess you'd better try."

"_Is_ that a yes?"

"It's a maybe…figure out your end…then we'll talk."

"Wiping that file clean." Fury called after Lexie as she strode towards the entrance of his office. "That won't change the past."

"I know." She froze in her tracks just long enough to throw sad glance back over her shoulder, voice flooding with emotion and heat pricking at the corners of her eyes. "…believe me, I know."

Hurried footsteps carried her closer to her escape, which still seemed a thousand miles away, Lexie punched down the wave of white-hot heat searing at the corners of her eyes. Now wasn't the time to break. There never was a time to break, really. But she could feel it barreling down that tracks and if she didn't get out of the office, and out of the building for that matter, it would hit her like a ton of bricks and she would little more than a simpering, quivering, sobbing, weak ass mess huddled on the floor for all the world to see. She would rather have been cut from ear to ear, bleeding out for all the world to see.

Lexie didn't see Steve loitering in the doorway, having been stood there just long enough to hear the last few minutes of a somewhat tense exchange but not quite long enough to get a strong grasp of the situation. Without even an upward glance she didn't take notice of him towering, still clad in full gear and fresh off his mission, almost directly in her path. Not that she would have cared even if she had. Maybe on another day, in a different state of mind, Lexie would have been more delicate, more graceful, more considerate on exit and would have sidestepped and breezed by him instead of not giving a shit and blind barreling through without a second thought. Maybe on another day, she would have even allowed herself a pause to appreciate the sight of him; statuesque, perfectly blond-haired and blue-eyed, and so very easy to look as he was after all.

Maybe on any other day, she would have avoided a straight blind collision without much as the briefest or most insincere apology tossed over her shoulder before storming down the hallway.

Maybe any other day she would have been full of better first impressions.

Maybe any other day, but not that day.

Instead, Steve was left to watch a stranger quickstep towards the elevator with more than a fair share of questions about what he had just walked in on in the process of waiting to steal his own share of Fury's time.

"Everything alright?" He turned his attention back towards his intended target of the visit.

"Peachy." Fury replied tersely, not exactly looking forward to whatever Rogers had to raise in front of him. "Just peachy."

"What was that all about anyway?"

"Nothing for you to concern yourself at the moment."

"Fair enough." Steve conceded. "She seems a little testy though…new friend?

"Could be…don't know yet. Better cross your fingers though…you might just need her to be yours."


End file.
